Fed’s Move to End Stimulus Aids Market Stability

Paul Dykewicz / Townhall Finance

 

 

The Federal Reserve Bank’s recent announcement that it is on the verge of ending its unprecedented and controversial monetary stimulus program seemed to reassure investors and let the Dow Jones Industrial Average eke out mild gains each day during the past week.

 

Credit the technique of “signaling” that involves the implementing of a policy with predictability that former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke began and his successor Janet Yellen continued when she took the post early this year. Such steadiness in scaling back on the stimulus by $10 billion at each Fed meeting removed the kind of uncertainty that investors hate and staved off a potential market sell-off last week.

The Fed’s Sept. 17 announcement that it may end its purchase of government agency-issued assets at its next meeting also will let the U.S. central bank curb the immense growth of its balance sheet.

Indeed, the Fed has added nearly $4 trillion in liabilities since 2008 through its monetary stimulus program and has caused House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, to hold hearings aimed at changing how the nation’s central bank operates.

For investors, the market exhibited relative calm last week with the Dow gaining .59% on Tuesday, Sept. 16, .15% on Wednesday, Sept. 17, .64% on Thursday, Sept. 18, and .08% on Friday, Sept. 19, when it closed at 17,279.72. Speculation that the Fed’s stimulus policy would lead to a dependency of the markets on the practice has proven to be unwarranted thus far.

The Fed specifically announced on Sept. 17 that it would cut its purchase of agency-backed securities in October by $5 billion from $10 billion, as well as add to its holdings of longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $10 billion per month rather than $15 billion per month. Despite the pulling back, the Fed issued a statement that indicated its sizable and still-increasing holdings of longer-term securities should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative in spurring an economic recovery.

If future economic data supports the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) expectation of ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and inflation moving back toward its longer-run objective of 2 percent, the central bank indicated it plans to end its current program of asset purchases at its next meeting. However, asset purchases are not on a “preset course” and any decision about their pace will remain contingent on the outlook for the labor market and inflation, as well as the Fed’s assessment of the likely efficacy and costs of such central bank intervention, the FOMC announced.

The FOMC reaffirmed its view that a “highly accommodative stance” of monetary policy remains appropriate, along with its goal of maintaining the current 0 to 1/4 percent target range for the federal funds rate, which is the interest rate at which depository institutions lend balances to each other overnight.

Of course, the nearly $4 trillion in liabilities that the Fed has amassed since 2008 remains to be addressed but at least the massive total soon may stop growing.

Republicans Shouldn’t Pander to Hispanic Voters

Star Parker / Townhall Columnist

 

Our national debate on immigration policy centers on a paradox. We must become aware of it and deal with it.

 

The United States needs an immigration policy because a lot of people want to come here. If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t need an immigration policy.

Why do they want to come? For freedom. And because there is freedom, there is opportunity.

The immigration issue is now a political football because of the political baggage it carries. Both parties want the votes of the Hispanic population, the most rapidly growing demographic in the country. And this is the same population most sensitive to the immigration issue because most of the illegals within our borders are from Latin American countries.

And here lies the paradox. The purported strategies for “winning” Hispanic votes are not about engaging this population on preserving American freedom and opportunity, which is what makes the United States so attractive to those who want to come. The strategies are about how to pander to this population to win its votes.

Realclearpolitics.com has just run a five day series of articles on the theme “Hispanic Voters: Trends and Opportunities.”

One of the articles, under the headline “To Reach Latinos, GOP Must Alter Its Message, Tone,” offers Republicans free advice on what they must do to get the votes of the increasingly powerful Hispanic demographic.

If Republicans are going to continue to “howl at the moon about the evils of “big government”,” this column advises, they can kiss these Latino folks goodbye.

“In poll after poll, majorities of Latinos embrace the view that government has a positive role in creating more opportunities for citizens who were not born to privilege.”

America was built by hundreds of millions of immigrants coming here to be free. Yet we are now told that this latest group of immigrants, Hispanics, must be offered more government, less freedom.

True, Barack Obama succeeded with Hispanic voters where John McCain and Mitt Romney did not.

But it is also true that over the last 6 years government and national debt has exploded and our economic growth is now larded and stunted.

Iran’s Foreign Minister to John Kerry and UNSC: Israel Must be Annihilated in Order to Defeat the Islamic State

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

Secretary of State John Kerry was present for this annihilationist abject Jew hatred. Not only is Iran tying the battle against the Islamic State to the destruction of Israel, but they are tying their ‘cooperation’  to the US relaxing it  stance on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Of course Iran wants the filthy kufar to defeat the Islamic State. The Islamic State is Sunni, Iran Shia. The Islamic State destroyed the Iran backed shia government in Iraq.

They slaughter shia with impunity. Iran needs to destroy the Islamic State. Instead of using this as leverage, the dithering Obama sides with our enemies. Again.

Under the vicious Obama regime, chaos and evil are tearing up the world.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister...

Read the whole entry »

     

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Suspicions run deep in Iraq that CIA is behind Islamic State

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

 

Or the Zionists, of course: “It is obvious to everyone that the Islamic State is a creation of the United States and Israel.”

Conspiracy paranoia update: “Suspicions Run Deep in Iraq That C.I.A. and the Islamic State Are United,” by David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times, September 20, 2014:

BAGHDAD — The United States has conducted an escalating campaign of deadly airstrikes against the extremists of the Islamic State for more than a month. But that appears to have done little to tamp down the conspiracy theories still circulating from the streets of Baghdad to the highest levels of Iraqi government that the C.I.A. is secretly behind the same extremists that it is now attacking.

“We know about who made Daesh,” said Bahaa al-Araji, a deputy prime minister, using an Arabic shorthand for the Islamic State on Saturday at a demonstration called by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to warn against the possible deployment of American ground troops. Mr. Sadr publicly blamed the C.I.A. for creating the Islamic State in a speech last week, and interviews suggested that most of the few thousand people at the demonstration, including dozens of members of Parliament, subscribed to the same theory. (Mr. Sadr is considered close to Iran, and the theory is popular there as well.)

When an American journalist asked Mr. Araji to clarify if he blamed the C.I.A. for the Islamic State, he retreated: “I don’t know. I am one of the poor people,” he said, speaking fluent English and quickly stepping back toward the open door of a chauffeur-driven SUV. “But we fear very much. Thank you!”

The prevalence of the theory in the streets underscored the deep suspicions of the American military’s return to Iraq more than a decade after its invasion, in 2003. The casual endorsement by a senior official, though, was also a pointed reminder that the new Iraqi government may be an awkward partner for the American-led campaign to drive out the extremists.

The Islamic State, also known by the acronym ISIS, has conquered many of the predominantly Sunni Muslim provinces in Iraq’s northeast, aided by the alienation of many residents to the Shiite-dominated government of the former prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. President Obama has insisted repeatedly that American military action against the Islamic State depended on the installation of a more inclusive government in Baghdad, but he moved ahead before it was complete….

The leader of the Islamic State, for his part, declared on Saturday that he defied the world to stop him.

Intelligence Officials: Islamist 'Khorasan Group' May Be Bigger Threat Than ISIS

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By Greg Richter / NEWSMAX

The Islamic State (ISIS) may be grabbing the headlines at the moment as the United States plans to hit targets in Syria with airstrikes while building a coalition of ground support, but there are other groups who the United States also should be focusing on, according to a report in The New York Times.

Of particular concern is a group called Khorasan, also based in Syria. It is led by Muhsin al-Fadhli and may be more interested in bombing the U.S. homeland than is ISIS.

Al-Qaida members from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa are believed to make up the group, but little else is known of who they are. It is thought that they are planning terror attacks using concealed explosives.

The Times describes Fadhli as a senior al-Qaida operative who was close enough to Osama bin Laden that he was one of the few people who knew of the 9/11 attacks before they happened.

He is believed to have arrived in Syria from Iran, where he was one of several al-Qaida members who fled Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks. He was identified as al-Qaida's leader in Iran in 2012 by the U.S. State Department.

National intelligence director James R. Clapper told the Times that "in terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State."

The chairs of the House and Senate Intellegence committees addressed the Times story Sunday on "Face the Nation."

Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers said he disagrees that the ISIS threat is less than that of Khorasan.

"It's different," he said, saying that the Khorasan group is a more immediate threat to the homeland as ISIS continues to consolidate the area it has taken over is Iraq and Syria.

Rogers has discussed the group before, preferring to call them "forward deployed al-Qaida operatives" who are working with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to devise terror plots to bring down airplanes.

"That means it's serious," Rogers said. "They have both capability, financing and people. All of that's dangerous."

ISIS has the same things, but also access to Americans and Europeans with western passports who can easily slip back into the country to carry out attacks, he said.

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told "Face the Nation," she shares Rogers' concern.

She described some of ISIS' atrocities including a photo she has seen of a young girl about 6 years old wearing a gingham party dress and mary jane shoes who had been beheaded by ISIS.

"This could be an American child. It could be a Eurpoean child. It could be a child anywhere," Feinstein said.

Also of concern in Syria is al-Nusra. Jennifer Cafarella, who works as a Syria analyst for the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, told the Times that American airstrikes could benefit the group if ISIS is knocked out and no one else fills the void.

"There is definitely a threat that, if not conducted as a component of a properly tailored strategy within Syria, the American strikes would allow the Nusra Front to fill a vacuum in eastern Syria," she said.

Op-ed:
By the Thousands They Flee                                               
By: Diane Sori
 
"I'm glad to get rid of these five people."
Harry Reid's response to the release of the GITMO 5 for one Bowe Bergdahl

Sadly and against intelligence orders, back in 2009, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released by Obama from Camp Bucca in Iraq. And now reported to be in Iraq is Mullah Mohammed Fazi...one of the GITMO 5 Obama 'exchanged' for the American traitor Bowe Bergdahl...and done so without Congressional approval I might add...and it's rumored the two are now working together to establish the islamic caliphate and to kill all who get in their way.

And so it becomes even more obvious that Barack HUSSEIN Obama's true motives in having these most dangerous of men released has assuredly crossed the line into knowingly and willingly 'aiding and abetting' the enemy...in other words TREASON...for he knew this would be the outcome when he released those that he did...released them to lead and serve ISIS...the very group he was briefed about well over a year ago that he deliberately chose to ignore.

And what of ISIS itself and its goal of establishing an islamic caliphate...expanding it westward and eastward from the areas it already controls in both Syria and Iraq...for the fact is that ISIS does indeed represent a direct threat NOT only to U.S. allies in the region, but given the number of foreign fighters within its ranks... unfortunately including Americans...ISIS now poses a threat to Europe and America as well for as those fighters return home they do so to join sleeper cells waiting for their call to jihad. And let's NOT forget the ISIS videos where they have promised to divide America in two...where they have threatened car bombs and explosives in our cities...and where they brag about a future where the flag of allah will be raised over the White House...to which I add maybe with Obama's help.
 
And so ISIS continues on its forward march as they overrun Syria's north, forcing some 66,000 Syrian Kurdish refugees to flee into Turkey within the past 24 hours alone, making it upwards of 100,000 people who have crossed into Turkey in just the last few days, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey. And with the number of Syrian refugees now in Turkey nearing 1.6 million and growing...that 1.6 million now becomes part of the 3 million registered Syrian refugees the U.N. has counted since Syria's three-year civil war began. 

So many people fleeing their homeland as it becomes obvious that while Bashir al-Assad might NOT be the Syrian people's best friend per se, ISIS and the 'supposed' rebels are indeed their worst nightmare. Remember, the rebel fighters are often religious and see NO problem at all with building up alliances with the jihadists against a common enemy...that being Bashir al-Assad. And with ISIS, the Free Syrian Army, and the other rebel groups all trying to oust al-Assad...the once mostly secular Syria could very well become part of the ISIS wanted islamic caliphate complete with the abomination known as sharia law.

And the Syrian people know this, as well they know what our clueless Congress has chosen to ignore...that these rebel groups...that the Free Syrian Army...are actually ISIS and al-Qaeda in disguise. And when you add in what Obama has knowingly done by releasing the worst of the worst it's NO wonder that the Syrian people are running for their lives.

So while these desperate people seek refuge in Turkey, and as our government gets ready to fund those who are actually the enemy, Kurdish fighters from Turkey are joining the Kurdish militia...known as the People's Protection Unit...in fighting to hold off advancing ISIS forces in Syria's northern region, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. And basically these fighters are being forced to go it alone without America's help thanks to Barack HUSSEIN Obama and this most shameful American Congress who want to arm the very ones that are forcing the people to flee.

And as village after village fall in Syria, Iraq, and Kurdistan to these ISIS barbarians...with 39 villages falling in Kurdistan just this past Friday alone in what amounts to ethnic cleansing...Kurdish fighters were forced to withdraw from their positions. And what does Obama do to help aid those who are our allies...he smugly continues on with his 'limited airstrikes'...maybe six to nine per day...just to show the world he's doing something while his something amounts to what is actually NOTHING at all.

And this is all so sad for the Kurdish Syrian fighters had been able to fight and hold off ISIS for the past two years, and even were able to secure some roads as a safe passage for the thousands of Yazidi fleeing for their lives. But now thanks to ISIS in possession of American made weapons and arms...weapons they took from Iraqi soldiers who high-tailed it and ran when the going got tough...ISIS is now advancing across northern Syria killing Iraqi's, Kurds, and Syrians with those very U.S. made weapons and arms.

And Obama and Congress...through the Free Syrian Army...want to supply them with even more.

But amidst all this bad news there is a bit of good news. First, the Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq have recaptured several Christian villages under ISIS control even killing a senior ISIS commander in the process. Second, the Kurdish peshmerga are more than willing to fight ISIS, they just need to get the training and the heavy weapons they need to do so.

But even that bit of good news is tempered with bad news as who will the peshmerga get those heavy weapons from as Obama and now Congress are arming their enemies instead of arming them. And while there are Shia militias also fighting against ISIS those militias are backed by Iran...trained by Iranians and/or Lebanese fighters from Hezbollah...a double-edged sword if ever there was one for how can Iran side with the 'good guys' when Iran itself is one of the 'bad guys'...probably the baddest guy of all.

So as ISIS...now more of a quasi-state than just a mere terrorist group...continues on its quest of establishing an islamic caliphate...it has plenty of weapons and arms and more than enough financial resources to do so. And Barack HUSSEIN Obama and now Congress are aiding them in that quest...aiding them by their own acts of treason...and it seems that sadly, right now, there is NOTHING or NO one that can stop them...and that is the saddest thing of all.